


Yours to Keep

by j_marquis



Category: Fire Emblem Echoes: Mou Hitori no Eiyuu Ou | Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
Genre: Camping, Confessions of love, Fluff, M/M, Romance, leon does not like camping it's dirty okay, naked kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-30
Updated: 2017-06-30
Packaged: 2018-11-21 10:52:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11355984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/j_marquis/pseuds/j_marquis
Summary: Leon hates camping.He also hates thinking, knowing his love will never be returned.





	Yours to Keep

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Laylah](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laylah/gifts).



Camping out had never been Leon's favorite of activities. He hated the dirt, the grime, the feeling that at any moment bugs could be crawling all over his fair skin. Hated the lack of washing facilities and sleeping on the ground. He hated how comfortable everyone else seemed, their camaraderie, laughing over a campfire while all it did to Leon was sting his eyes and drive ashes into his skin. He could taste the acrid smoke on his tongue and he hated it.

But there was nowhere else he wanted to be.

Here, he could sit in the shadows and he could watch Valbar laugh, watch him pitch the tents and help the younger ones learn to cook with what they could hunt. He could watch the man he loved, so at lease in nature, stripping the armor from his strong body, stretching out so wide his shirt rode up at the bottom, exposing the small round of belly that laid soft over strong abs. Here, the natural light in dusk set the world glowing, and he could sit on the ruins of a wall or a building or what it once was, now stones, and he could watch as Valbar made a new family of these ragtag warriors and their lost princess and he could imagine it included him.

In a strange way, it did. The children did their best to include him, he taught them to hunt with bow and arrow, watched as the man who called himself Saber taught them all to skin their meat, prepare it for the fire. He wondered if this was what it would be like to have a family. Valbar and Kamui had been his companions for so long, and he did think of them fondly, of course, but this was different. It was loud, and it was chaotic, but, mostly, it was good.

Their next campsite on the trail to Mira's temple was beside a running stream. And at the first chance, Leon was stripping down, stepping into the clear, cold water, hoping to wash some of the filth of battle and travel from his skin. Hoping for some time alone. For the running water and a bar of soap from his travel pack to be enough to clean him, that no one would think the same, at least not until he was finished.

"Leon!"

Oh, the one voice he didn't mind.

Valbar, oh the songs he could sing of him. If Leon could sing at all. The poems he would write, if he could write words that sounded as beautiful as that strong voice. His effortless strength, his graciousness, his wide, unrestrained smile. The emptiness he just barely concealed. Leon thought it an honor he was allowed to see the side of Valbar more human, the side that still grieved impossible loss. But he hated that it still existed. Hated that someone so simple, so stupid as a mere pirate had hurt his warrior so badly.

His, wasn't that a laugh.

"Leon, is that you?"

Valbar could never be his. Leon harbored no delusions that Valbar would return his affections, could love him. Not the way he loved, at least. As a brother, yes, of course, as a fellow fighter, another companion in this absurd journey that might save the world itself. But not as a lover. No, Valbar would never want to replace the wife he still mourned. Not that Leon wanted to replace her, not really. He just wanted to be there for the man who had given him so much.

"It is, but I'm rather undressed."

Valbar stepped forward, sat on the edge of the water. "I was hoping for a moment of sanity, is all."

"I'll do my best to provide." Leon soaked his hair, rubbed soap into it. "But alas I make no promises."

"Sometimes I think you're the only bit of sanity here."

"You flatter me." Leon could feel Valbar's eyes on him, turned away in something like shame. To have the eyes of someone he wanted, someone he admired, so much, on him was slightly too much.

"Do you need me to flatter you?" Valbar laughed. "You seem to do it yourself well enough."

It was Leon's turn to laugh, and he was glad to be turned away, to hide the blush. "Empty bravado. You taught me that trick yourself."

"I must have. You wield it well." 

Leon heard movement behind him, turned in time to see Valbar stripping down, stepping into he water. He was a large man, intimidatingly so, solid muscle and warmth. Leon had seen him undressed before, living from campsite to campsite bred that kind of familiarity, but each time it was like new. Each time he wished he could stare longer, count the little scars, the long ones, the freckles on his shoulders.

"Deflection is a strong tactical advantage, my friend." Leon managed a smile.

Valbar sighed, and a smile touched his face, a soft thing, it seemed too intimate to look at for too long. "You would know. You've been using it like a hammer since long before I taught you how."

"What do you mean?" Leon's own smile fell, replaced by confusion, that sunk into him like hot knives when Valbar made his way closer, through the cool water.

"I came here looking for you." Valbar stopped before he came too close, before they could touch without reaching out.

Leon wouldn't dare reach out. "Did you?"

"Yeah. You know, what you did, offering to follow us, that was, well, noble. Good. Admirable, I think that was the word I was looking for."

"I only wanted to follow you." Leon looked away, bright red along his delicate cheeks.

"I realize that, now. How long, Leon, my friend?"

"What do you mean?" No, Leon knew, he knew, Valbar knew how he felt. He trembled, expecting to be turned away, maybe even sent away, met with repulsion and rejection.

No, that wasn't quite it. Valbar reached out, touched his bare shoulder. Skin to skin, just the way Leon had wanted, had dreamed of, had longed for, for so long.

"I know how you feel, Leon." Valbar insisted.

"I'm sorry." Leon looked away. "You shouldn't have to deal with my petty feelings when we're already going through so much."

"They're not petty." Valbar came closer, and Leon forgot to feel awkward that they were undressed, together, in the water. Valbar was looking at him, and only him, and nothing else mattered. "They're yours."

"You do not have to return them. I can, I do not have to stay." Leon moved away, looked away, tried to hide the rush of emotions that moved frantically through him.

Valbar pulled him back, wrapped an arm around him, and he kissed Leon. He was not an elegant kisser, Leon had that absent thought in the back of his mind, clumsy and messy and almost rough. Leon wouldn't have it any other way. He returned the kiss with all his own elegance, matching him only in passion. All he had wanted. All he could need.

"I want you to stay." Valbar sighed, when they parted to breathe. His hand cradled the back of Leon's head, he moved his thumb, rubbed it against the side of Leon's head, along his temple. "You make this place normal. Make me right, you've been doing it for so long and I can't believe I didn't see it until now."

"I can't blame you." Leon smiled, leaned into the touch, by then their nakedness was a warm, pleasant feeling in his gut, made the scene all the more intimate. "I did master the art of deflection, didn't I?"


End file.
